A former Weld County high school cheerleading captain who was left a quadriplegic after a rollover accident was awarded $18 million in damages by a U.S. District Court jury in Denver.

Erica Hoffman and her parents sued Ford Motor Co. after the 2006 accident because she says her seat belt unlatched during the crash.

Ford is solely responsible for 25 percent of the judgment, or roughly $4.23 million.

Edward Stewart, an attorney representing Ford, contends that Hoffman was not wearing her seat belt that day, and he plans to file an appeal.

“We believe that medical evidence shows she was not wearing it,” Stewart said.

The trial was held in Judge Robert Blackburn’s courtroom, and the jury deliberated for 3½ days before coming to a decision Tuesday.

Hoffman, now 20, of Keenesburg, settled her case against her friend, Shannon Cvancara, who was driving, and TRW Automotive Safety Systems Inc., the company that manufactured the seat belt. The amount of those settlements is confidential, said Hoffman’s attorney, Randolph Barnhart.

The accident happened the morning of March 14, 2006, on Weld County Road 10 near Keenesburg as Cvancara was driving Hoffman to Weld Central High School in a 1999 Mercury Cougar Coupe, manufactured by Ford. The girls were not using drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash.

“When it went off the road, it rolled 4½ times, and her buckle came unlatched,” Barnhart said. “She was thrown from the vehicle.”

Barnhart said that Hoffman’s seat belt had paint on it from the outside of the car door, which he believes proves that she was wearing her seat belt when she was thrown from the car.

Stewart disputed the paint theory and said Hoffman’s own expert testified that the paint on the seat belt was not the same chemically as the paint on the door.

Hoffman said she was pleased with the verdict but hopes safety standards will improve.

“It’s pretty sad because they knew about the default in the belt, and they did not do anything about it,” Hoffman said. “I would like to see their standards change to protect their customers.”

Hoffman, who uses a wheelchair with hand controls, says she has endured months of physical therapy and doctor appointments. The cost of medical care since the accident has totaled $900,000.

“You have to keep using your muscles, or you will lose them,” she said.

Since the accident, Hoffman has spent much of her time speaking to high school students about driving safety. She plans to go to college, study psychology and become a school counselor.

“You don’t have to be drunk or taking drugs to get in an accident,” Hoffman said she tells the students. “Some kind of laugh if off, but some are really touched, and they will think twice (about safety) before they get behind the wheel of a car.”

Florida’s state social services agency investigated Nikolas Cruz’s home life more than a year before police say he killed 17 people at his former high school, closing the inquiry after determining that his “final level of risk is low,” despite learning that the teenager had behavioral struggles and was planning to buy a gun, according to an investigative report.